The jury in the Maxine Williams murder trial has this afternoon retired to consider a verdict.

Williams, aged 22, no longer denies stabbing Bernard Evans, the partner of her mother Julie, to death in the kitchen of his home in Pantyffynon Road, Ammanford.

The judge, Mr Justice Nigel Davis, told the jury at Swansea crown court her defences appeared to be that she had not meant to kill him, that it was self defence or that she had been suffering from diminished responsibility.

Williams, he pointed out, had declined to enter the witness box to explain precisely what her explanation was.

At various stages during police interviews, he added, she had maintained that she had not meant to hurt Mr Evans, aged 42, and that she had stabbed him accidentally while trying to stop him from attacking her.

But in other accounts she said she had been planning to kill him for months because he had been repeatedly violent towards her mother.

He reminded the jury she said during one interview, "I've been tasting blood for weeks."

She also told police, "I thought I would just kill him off. If I could have got hold of a gun I would have done it with that."

Mr Justice Davis said the jury might find the interviews revealing. She told police she was guilty of murder "but almost in the same breath" that it had been an accident.

Mr Evans bled to death after being stabbed once in the arm in the early hours of January 22.

Williams, of Pembrey, denies murder.